The process of reconciling ethnic identity with the pressures of assimilation is an "ongoing" one, Asian-American playwright David Henry Hwang said at a speech in Sever last night, pointing to phases of "evolution" in his own work.

Hwang, author of the award-winning M. Butterfly, said his early plays were influenced by the growing ethnic awareness on college campuses in the 1970s. But he said he shifted from the largely assimilationist model of F.O.B. to a more "nationalist-isolationist phase" in such works as Dance on the Railroad and Family Devotions, searching instead for a specifically Asian content and form.

The playwright said he wrote M. Butterfly at a time when he questioned the implications of his theatrical self-segregation and became interested in defining the "mainstream" in American culture.

Just as the demographic future of the U.S. lies in a shift toward plurality, Hwang said, the future of American theater will witness an affirmation of the "multi-ethnic."

Hwang said he is planning to direct an original adaptation of The Idiot set in contemporary New York in collaboration with Martin Scorcese.

Hwang also attended an acting workshop yesterday afternoon in which students from the Asian American Association performed F.O.B.

"I had a really good time watching this," Hwang said of the students' performance.